The disclosures herein relate generally to information handling systems (IHS's) and more particularly to reducing the number of different types of connectors employed to support different devices in information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system (IHS) generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Many IHS's include a main board or motherboard in which several expansion connectors are situated on a common bus, for example, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus and the more recent PCI Express (PCIE) bus. Each expansion connector is capable of receiving an expansion card to provide additional capability to the system. Expansion cards are also known as add-in-cards (AICs).
In additional to these standard PCI or PCIE bus connectors, a modern IHS is likely to include several other different and unique connectors especially as more and more functionally is integrated on motherboards. Contemporary IHS's often implement functions in software, for example, audio processing, or custom hardware, for example LAN MAC. In both cases, the physical layer is generally in a separate semiconductor device due to semiconductor process and cost considerations. Frequently, these functions interface to unique physical interconnect layers. For example, the LAN function interfaces through a Media Independent audio function interfaces through an AC97 physical layer. Each of these interfaces is unique. The use of such multiple interfaces within the IHS is a significant factor in the current proliferation of multiple different unique connectors in the IHS. For example, AMR connectors are used to support “Audio Modem Riser” cards and CMR connectors are used to support “Communication Modem Riser” cards. Each of these connectors is different from the other and is also different from the PCI or PCIE connectors used for AICs in IHSs.
What is needed is a way to reduce the number of different unique connectors in an information handling system while still permitting increased functionality to be integrated in the information handling system.